


The darkness and us

by torspringe



Category: The Borgias (2011)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Tumblr Prompt, but not that much really, gangsters au, it was my first time with this setting so it's very very soft, it's almost like any other modern au, with a bit of guns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-05
Updated: 2014-01-05
Packaged: 2018-01-07 14:43:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1121068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torspringe/pseuds/torspringe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He actually likes to stay like this, not really seeing anything, before a possibile shooting. [...] It's just Cesare and the darkness, his darkness and him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The darkness and us

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shelbyeverdeen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shelbyeverdeen/gifts).



Cesare is looking at the gun on the table. He’s alone in the living room that is swallowed in darkness. He doesn’t bother to get up from the chair to switch the light on.

He actually likes to stay like this, not really seeing anything, before a possible shooting. Ah, he can feel it coming, so inevitable. The darkness helps his mind staying clear and free from superficial thoughts. It’s just Cesare and the darkness, his darkness and him.

He doesn’t capture the figure entering the room then, not until it sits on the couch and the soft sound of pillows announce a presence. Cesare turns to see and a dim light coming from the distant window draws the profile of long white legs. He recognises them immediately.

"Having trouble sleeping, sis?"

Lucrezia laughs in a silence he can always hear. She knows Cesare can’t see that she’s fully dressed in nothing like her pyjamas. "I don’t plan to sleep tonight."

Cesare smiles, reaches for the gun and starts caressing it. "You know what night is this, right?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Then you shouldn’t be here."

That laugh again. Cesare imagines her red lips turning up and almost curses at the darkness for covering them. He feels Lucrezia has got up from the couch and she’s moving across the room. Then suddenly his fingers feel something different than the cold metal: skin.

His sister’s fingers are drawing curves on the surface of the gun, barely touching his. Cesare reaches to take her hand in his own but she has already landed it on the table.

"You should fetch me another one of this, Cesare," she says and at first he doesn’t understand what she’s referring to, then she adds: "I’m coming too."

"No." His refuse is immediate.

"I’ve got permission, you know. From Father."

Cesare doesn’t care for Rodrigo’s reasons to have Lucrezia participating in a fight between the clans of Rome, whatever they are, she won’t come if he says so and he says so.

"That’s never gonna happen, Lucrezia. I won’t give you a gun, forget it."

"Fine, I’ll ask Juan." Contrary to Cesare, her voice was kept low and calm since the start of their conversation. Actually she sounds rather amused. She gets up from the chair and moves to the door. "I’ll see you in the car, don’t take too long."

Cesare catches her just before she slips out of his reach. His reflexes are sharp as ever. He takes Lucrezia’s hand in his and doesn’t let go. He can see his arm in the faint stain of light in the room.

He pulls Lucrezia closer and he can even see part of her face now, the lowest part, her nose and lips and chin. He takes it in his other hand.

"Why do I feel it’s useless to warn you of the danger, sister?" he asks her and his voice is low.

"Because it’s what it is," she answers. "I’ve watched you, all of you for so long now. I am ready."

(No you’re not. You’ll never be. I don’t want you to be.) 

Cesare doesn’t say any of the thoughts that are crossing his mind. He knows she’ll have an answer to all of them, especially to the last, the one that matters most to him. He doesn’t want her to force him to admit that he has a right to worry only for the last. He knows she’s ready to hold and even use a gun, he just doesn’t want her to take part in this life of theirs, though how can she not?

"And nothing I could say will make you change your mind?"

Before answering again, Lucrezia drives her fingers on his hand that it’s still holding her chin and he lets go of the one on her wrist. She’s so close now even her eyes are partially under the light. So ethereal.

In Cesare’s ideal world, Lucrezia was free from the sins of their family and not naturally drawn to them. But dreams are fragile and breakable and Lucrezia’s eyes are full of excitement as she clings to his arm.

"My dear brother, always so protective."

"It seems I have to since you won’t protect yourself."

She suddenly breaks free of their weird embrace and smiles at him while stepping out of the brief space of light, returning to the darkness. Where he follows, beaten at a game he’ll always lose.

It will be a long hard night, Cesare knows it. At the end of which Lucrezia should rush away as fast as she can run, when instead she’ll have become a proper Borgia.

And despite all his good will, Cesare can’t ignore the shiver on his spine when he sees Lucrezia holding a subtle gun in her thin long fingers, nor the one as he leans behind her to help her point at the head of the manikin they keep in the garage. She hits the target on the first shot.

Perhaps she won’t need to know how to use the gun that night, but it’s certainly going to help her in the future. And there’s no turning back. The darkness has swallowed them both.


End file.
